Al.com recently
featured a letter by William A. North, of Birmingham, who attacked a previous
column about Israel that I had written. My column, which was posted on al.com,
highlighted a recent Gallup Poll that showed Americans by a huge margin support
Israel over the Palestinians.

Wrote Mr. North, "The greatest problem with Mr. Friedman's
column, in my view, is that while he is extolling Israel as 'a beacon of
tolerance' and is condemning the Palestinians, who have, according to him,
'clung to a path of resistance, violence, terror and falsehoods,' he fails to
address, even mention, the biggest reason for anti-Israel sentiment around the
world, not least among the Palestinian people, which is the continual expansion
of Israeli Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem."

Mr. North makes the mistake that many of Israel's critics make. He
enlarges the significance of the settlement issue, reflecting growing
anti-Israel propaganda that suggests settlements are the only issue in the
conflict when they are one of a series of issues.

Moreover, it's important to remember that the Palestinian Arabs
and their allies refused to recognize Israel upon its rebirth as a modern
nation in 1948. This was 19 years before Israel gained access to East Jerusalem
and the West Bank in the June 1967 war, after warning King Hussein of Jordan to stay out of the conflict which he did
not.

After that war, Israel sought negotiations and reconciliation with
the Arabs and the Arabs refused. This is when Israel began constructing housing
in East Jerusalem and the West Bank both as a security buffer and fulfillment
of the Zionist vision that Jews have a right to settle in all parts of their
biblical homeland.

In another piece posted on al.com, a Jewish woman based in the
Boston area links the non-violent Civil Rights movement in the South to the
Palestinian movement, overlooking Palestinian rejection of Israel and violence
against the Jewish state. The article is by Alice Rothchild, a physician,
author and filmmaker. Unfortunately Dr. Rothchild misses the mark, as people do
who strive to create this illogical connection.

The Civil Rights movement was about American citizens striving to
seek rights that governments were denying them. In the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, Israel repeatedly has tried to reach an accommodation with the
Palestinians to allow them to live independently with full rights and freedoms.

Her commentary piece also overlooks Israel's legitimate security
concerns. Any critic of Israel, Jewish or not, who fails to acknowledge
Israel's daily security anxieties forfeits the right to criticize the Jewish
state. Israel is not perfect and there are issues regarding Palestinians in the
West Bank and Arabs living within Israel that need to be addressed. However, to
blame Israel exclusively is a gross misrepresentation.